Record breaker Kate ready to take on the world

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Kate, who was born in Newry was representing Northern Ireland at those games and her performance in Birmingham proved that she can compete with the best in the world in the heptathlon.

A niggling injury disrupted the latter half of 2022 for Kate who was forced to miss out on the European Championships but having worked hard over the winter the former St Vincent’s student proved she is approaching something near her best form with that performance in Clermont over the weekend. Speaking after the event Kate spoke of her delight at breaking the national record while also speaking about ramping up to be ready for this summer’s World Championships in Budapest.

“It’s so nice to be healthy, back out competing with world-class girls,” O’Connor told Decathletes of Europe.

“This was my first pentathlon in three years I think and the last one I did was a bit rubbish so it was great to be out competing against some world class girls out there.

“I had a little bit of a rough end to the season last year, not being able to compete at Europeans with injury, but I’ve been training hard and I really came out here to have fun and see where I was at, and I managed to pull out a national record. We have more pentathlons planned; I can definitely get better. All the hard work was done during the winter so today was just about getting out there, shaking off any nerves and most importantly having fun.

“It was slightly annoying not getting the 4,400 points but I have a few more pen- tathlons pencilled in over the next few months so hopefully we can get the national record even higher. The World Championships in the summer is obviously what I’m focusing on this year and everything I do from here on in will be geared towards getting ready for those games. Today was a great first step in getting ready but the hard work will continue from here on in,” promised Kate.

DunDalK said goodbye to one of its most famous musicians and entertainers last week when Gerry Foran was laid to rest on Friday.

Gerry played with a number of bands down through the years, most notably with legendary showband Paragon 7 who achieved great success during the 1960’s.

Gerry had earlier began his music career as singer with the Woodpeckers during the late 50’s.

Patsy Rogers knew more than most how talented Gerry was, having toured with him with popular band the ‘looney Tunes’ over 40 years ago. Singer Gerry Foran, guitarist Tommy Kelly and drummer Patsy Rogers were one of the most successful local bands during the showband era and were invited by Knockbridge man Tommy Smyth to tour america for a six week run. according to Patsy, Gerry was magnificent company during those days on the road.

“Gerry was a brilliant musician and brilliant company. The laughs we had on the road are memories that will stay with me forever. he had a huge impact on music locally and I would say that probably about 50% of guitarists around town were taught how to play by Gerry at some point. he was a great man for the chat and as we used to say he could sell sand to the arabs.

“That six-week tour of america was so enjoyable. We were three young men who didn’t have a care in the world and we were loving life in nYC. one day I remember we were walking down the main street with our shirts off because it was so hot and we were stopped by a cop who threatened to give us a citation if we didn’t put our tops back on. Before we did we asked him if he would take a picture of us before we put the shirts back on and he duly obliged (see picture).

Tommy Smyth who is now a big deal in america commentating on soccer games for eSPn brought us over to the uS for that tour and it was a huge success.

“Gerry had so much success over the years and as well as the music he enjoyed writing poetry and books. I visited him regularly up in Dealgan house over the last few years and we would reminisce about the great days back when we were playing. he was a great man and I will miss him dearly,” stated Patsy.